I’m Looking Over My Dead Dog Rover

When I mentioned to a schoolteacher friend that I had sung “I’m Looking Over My Dead Dog Rover” (sung to the tune of “I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover”) on my radio show, she exclaimed,

“You have too much fun! I don’t think I could ever teach 8th grade Algebra AND try to remember lyrics to songs we sang at 4-H camp before the Civil War!”

I took this as a challenge.

I devised math problems that coincide with my “Rover” song.

Do I have too much time on my hands?
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I’m looking over my dead dog Rover
That I over-ran with the mower.

(Problem #1: My overgrown back lawn is 30 feet long by 75 feet wide. My sleeping dog occupied 6 square feet in the tall grass as I began mowing. What is the ratio of the area of my lawn to the area of my dog’s former resting place?)

One leg is missing, the other is gone,
One leg is spread all over the lawn.

(Problem #2: My former dog’s back leg occupied a volume of 4 inches by 4 inches by 24 inches. How large an area could this volume cover in a layer 1/4 inch thick?)

(Extra credit: How thick would the layer be if “spread all over the lawn”?)
No need explaining the one remaining
It’s hanging from the outhouse door.

(Problem #3: If the leg exited the mower at a speed of 10 feet per second, how long did it take to reach the outhouse door, which is 50 feet away?)

(Extra credit: Assuming the outhouse door is 8 feet high and that the acceleration of gravity is 32 feet per second per second, how long will it take for the leg to fall to the ground as I open the door when answering Nature’s call next time?)